NORMAL, Ill. - The Illinois State men's basketball team will look to get back to its winning ways on Saturday, as the Redbirds host the Northern Iowa Panthers in a 6 p.m. tip-off inside CEFCU Arena.
QUICK HITTERS
• Over the past 10 seasons in the NCAA, few schools have made a jump from one season to the next better than ISU. From last season to this season the Redbirds have jumped 328 position rankings and .107 percentage points and currently rank 11th in the country in three-point field goal percentage
• Illinois State guard Landon Wolf spent three seasons with the Northern Iowa basketball program (redshirting one), while Johnny Kinziger and UNI's Will Hornseth were teammates at De Pere High School
• Illinois State is one of three schools in NCAA Division I basketball to rank inside of the top-35 in field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, and free throw percentage
• If maintained, ISU's .39 three-point field goal percentage is on pace to be the fourth-best single-season average in school history
• Illinois State fifth-year forward Caden Boser stands just four points away from reaching 1,000 for his collegiate career, spanning his time at UMKC, Valdosta, and now ISU
• Jack Daugherty's 35 three-point baskets are tied for the 10th-most in a season by an ISU freshman in program history
• Malachi Poindexter has made 86.8 percent of his free throw tries over his three-year Redbird career, which is the 28th-highest active career percentage in the NCAA
• This season the Illinois State Redbirds have had seven different players lead the team in scoring through the opening 16 games of the season
• Illinois State's win against UAB on November 23 was the program's third game in a four-game stretch where the Redbird opponent was picked as the preseason favorite in their conference: Ohio (Mid-American Conference), McNeese (Southland Conference), and UAB (American Athletic Conference). In those games, the Redbirds went 2-1
• The Redbirds are one of five schools in the country to rank inside of the top-20 in the NCAA in both three-point field goals per game (10.5 - 19th) and three-point field goal percentage (.399 - 11th)
• Ty Pence is one of 10 players this season to have played at least 400 minutes with shooting percentages of at least .480 / .345 / .895 on FG / 3FG / FT
• This season Illinois State has a KenPom adjusted offensive percentage of 109.5, which is the second-highest by a Redbird squad in the KenPom era (1996 to present)
• Dalton Banks' three blocked shots against Saint Louis is tied for the fourth-most in the country this season in a game by a player 6-2 or shorter
• ISU's Chase Walker ranks 10th in the country in the KenPom stat Offensive Rebounding Percentage
• Seven times this season, ISU has had games with shooting splits of at least .500/.400/.750. No other team in school history has had more than four such game splits in a single season, and the Redbirds are tied for the most in the NCAA
SCOUTING NORTHERN IOWA
The Panthers come into the weekend meeting between the two schools looking to break out of their two-game losing skid after losses at Valparaiso and at home against Murray State.
Against the Racers on Wednesday, Trey Campbell scored a game-high 17 points, as Tytan Anderson scored 15, Leon Bond III 13 and Ben Schwieger a dozen. Will Hornseth pulled down a game-high six rebounds, while Anderson's four assists led the team. Campbell had a game-high-tying three steals, with Hornseth and Anderson adding two steals each.
This season the Panthers have four players averaging double-figure scoring, led by Anderson's 14.7 point per game average. Jacob Hutson (12.5), Bond III (11.8), and Campbell (10.3) all average in double-figures with Schwieger close behind at 9.4 points per game. Anderson's 6.2 rebound per game average leads the team, as Bond is a rebound per game behind at 5.2.
Campbell's 52 assists leads the team, with Anderson (39), and Hutson (31) close behind. Anderson (23) and Campbell (22) are in a neck-in-neck race for the team steals lead, while Anderson and Bond each have 10 blocks.
FAMILIAR FACES
The game against Northern Iowa has numerous familiar storylines throughout. Current Redbird guard Landon Wolf spent three seasons as a member of the Northern Iowa basketball team (redshirting one of those seasons). He was also high school teammates with four members of the 2024-25 squad (Trey Campbell, Cade Courbat, Chase Courbat, and Hunter Jacobson). Redbird guard Johnny Kinziger and Northern Iowa forward Will Hornseth were teammates on the state champion De Pere High School squad
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SHOOTING STARS
Illinois State is one of three schools in the country (along with Villanova and Texas Tech) to rank inside of the top-35 in field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage. The sum of ISU's three rankings is 76 (32nd in FG%, 11th in 3FG%, 33rd in FT%), and is the fourth-lowest sum in the country.
FRESHMAN DEEP MAKES
Through the first 16 games of the season, Illinois State freshman Jack Daugherty has made 35 three-point field goals, which is the 10th-most in a season by a freshman in program history. Over his last two games he passed former Redbird and current member of the New Orleans Pelicans Antonio Reeves.
REBOUNDING MARGIN
Against Northern Illinois on December 18, the Redbirds had a +20 rebounding margin, which is the highest by a Redbird team against a NCAA Division I opponent since November 29, 2014 against Youngstown State. There have been just five games with a larger margin for ISU since the 2009-10 season.
HIGH ON MAKES AND PERCENTAGE
This season the Redbirds rank 11th in the NCAA in three-point field percentage (.399) and 19th in three-pointers per game (10.5). There are just five schools in the country who rank inside of the top-20 in each category.
ONE OF A FEW
This season, Redbird sophomore Ty Pence is one of 10 players in the country this season who have played at least 400 minutes with shooting percentages of .480 or better from the field, .345 or better from long range, and at least .895 from the charity stripe.
NEAR-CONFERENCE RECORDS
In ISU's win over Trinity Christian, the Redbirds made 20-of-40 three-point field goals, which is tied for the third-most in a game in conference history. Against Belmont, Illinois State's 18 made three-pointers are the second-most in a MVC game in conference history
OFFENSIVE REBOUNDING PERCENTAGE
Through 15 games of the season, Illinois State forward Chase Walker ranks ninth in the country in the KenPom statistical category Offensive Rebounding Percentage. The statistic is the percentage of possible offensive rebounds a player gets, and the denominator is scaled based on the percentage of a team's minutes played by the player.
EIGHT IS GREAT
Illinois State fifth-year forward Caden Boser is averaging 5.6 points per game this season, and is the eighth-highest scorer on his Redbird squad. Only one other MVC player - Jahni Summers of Indiana State - has a higher scoring average among the eighth-leading scorers on their respective teams (having played at least 50 percent of the team's games).
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STRONG NEW CLASS
With four signees, the Illinois State men's basketball recruiting class for the 2025 season was ranked 60th in the country according to the 247sports.com team ranking. ISU added forward Nick Allen, guard/forward Isaac Ericksen, and guards Tyreek Coleman and Mason Klabo. Allen, a 6-11 forward from Bradley-Bourbonnais HS, has a national 247sports ranking of 277, and is the top-rated center in the state of Illinois. He was named First Team All-State as a junior. Ericksen, a 6-9 guard/forward from Green Level HS in Cary, North Carolina, was named Second Team All-State as a junior, and is the 13th-rated prospect inside North Carolina. Coleman, a 6-2 guard from Waubonsie Valley HS, was named Third Team All-State as a junior. Klabo, a 6-1 guard from Fargo Davies HS in Fargo, North Dakota, was named First Team All-State three times heading into his senior season, as he is within grasp of the North Dakota boys basketball all-time scoring record.
KENPOM EFFICIENCYÂ
KenPom, the primary statistical and analysis college basketball site, and its work on tempo-based basketball statistics is compared by many to the work of Bill James in baseball. This season Illinois State's adjusted offensive total is 109.5, which is the second-highest total for ISU in the history of the KenPom ratings, which date back through the 1996-97 season.
PERCENTAGES ACROSS THE BOARD
Seven times this season the Illinois State men's basketball team has had games where it has made over half of its field goal tries, 40 percent of the three-point attempts, and at least 75 percent from the charity stripe. No other team in school history - outside of this season's team - has had more than four such games in an entire season. The total is also tied for the highest this season with St. Thomas. Since 2004-05, the most such games in a season is 11, held by Oklahoma State (2004-05), Michigan (2016-17), South Dakota State (2021-22), and Colorado (2023-24).
EXCITING GAMES
Notable basketball analytics website KenPom has a statistic called Game Excitement, which is a measure of how much the win probability changed over the course of a game (using a win probability algorithm that assumes the teams are of equal strength). This season the Redbirds appear in the list twice within the top 11 games overall, with the No. 9 game coming from Illinois State's 84-83 win over UAB in the Virgin Islands, while the Redbird 99-97 overtime loss at Belmont is the 11th highest. ISU's win over UAB is the only game in the top-15 of the ranking to not have gone into overtime.
HALL OF FAMER DOUG COLLINS
On October 13, Redbird basketball legend Doug Collins was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the highest honor for anyone associated with the game of basketball. Collins had played and worked in basketball at almost every level including being an All-American at Illinois State, an NBA top overall draft pick, an Olympian in 1972, playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, coaching the Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and Washington Wizards, and an NBA and Olympic broadcaster for ABC/ESPN, CBS, NBC, TNT, and TBS. He was joined in the 2024 Hall of Fame class by 12 others including: Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter, Seimone Augustus, Bo Ryan, Michael Cooper, Walter Davis, Charles Smith, Dick Barnett, Harley Redin, Michele Timms, Jerry West, and Herb Simon.
ALL-AMERICA WATCH LIST
On Thursday, October 31, Illinois State sophomore guard Johnny Kinziger was named to the Bracketeer.org All-American watch list. Eligible conferences for the first-year award include: America East, ASUN, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, CAA, Conference USA, Horizon League, Ivy League, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, MVC, NEC, OVC, Patriot League, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, Summit League, Sun Belt, WAC. The 2025 Bracketeer.Org Non-Power Conference Player of the Year will be announced in the final week of March, 2025.Â
PRESEASON POLL
The Illinois State men's basketball team was picked to finish fourth in the preseason poll, with voters in the poll consisting of school's media, SIDs, and head coaches. Johnny Kinziger was named to the First Team, while Malachi Poindexter was picked on the second team.
